1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the discovery of a new human picornavirus virus and more specifically, to methods of detecting the virus and diagnosing viral infection, methods of treating or preventing virus infection, and methods for identifying anti-viral compounds.
2. Background Information
Picornaviridae are a large family of non-enveloped, positive-sense RNA animal viruses, comprised of six genera capable of infecting human (Enterovirus, Parechovirus, Rhinovirus, Hepatovirus, Cardiovirus, and Aphthovirus) that contain more than 200 viral species known to cause important diseases of humans and animals, including type A viral hepatitis, aseptic meningitis, chronic heart disease and the common cold.
Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is a term that is often used to describe a sudden onset of generalized or symmetric limb weakness. AFP is associated with a number of pathogenic agents including enteroviruses, echoviruses, and adenoviruses, among others. However, existing molecular reagents frequently fail to identify the causative agent if it is a highly divergent variant of a known virus or if it is a novel virus.
Despite the known pathogenicity of picornaviruses and the urgent need for methods to prevent, diagnose and treat picornavirus infections, other divergent human picornaviruses have not yet been identified. Therefore, a need exists to detect divergent human picornaviruses and to provide a method to diagnose, prevent and treat divergent picornavirus infection. Moreover, there exists a need to provide methods to identify divergent picornavirus antiviral compounds.